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Service W5: Service History

Introduction

Service W5

On Friday 1^st June 1928, Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) started operation of a network of local area bus services in Worcester City as part of the “Worcester Agreement”, replacing the electric tramway network that ceased operation on the previous day. The new Worcester bus network was the first local area network introduced by BMMO to carry local area prefixes, having route numbers with ‘W’-prefix.

• Service W1: Worcester City Centre – Ombersley Road.
• Service W2: Worcester City Centre – Droitwich Road.
• Service W3: Worcester City Centre – Bromyard Road.
• Service W4: Worcester City Centre – Malvern Road.
• Service W5: Worcester City Centre – Rainbow Hill.
• Service W6: Worcester City Centre – London Road.
• Service W7: Worcester City Centre – Bath Road (Berwick Arms).
• Service W8: Worcester City Centre – Shrub Hill.
• Service W9: Worcester City Centre – Tolladine Road.
• Service W10: Worcester City Centre – Bath Road (Norton Turning).
• Service W11: Worcester City Centre – Bransford Road.
• Service W12: Worcester City Centre – Comer Gardens.
• Service W14: Worcester City Centre – Martley Road.

Service W5 (1928–1966)

Operated by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited

Service W5 was introduced on Friday 1^st June 1928 as part of the new Worcester City network of local services. The service operated every 10-minutes Monday to Saturday, and every 15-minutes on Sundays between Worcester City Centre (St. Nicholas Street) and Rainbow Hill, terminating at the Cemetery.

In the early 1930s, certain journeys of Service W5 were extended past Rainbow Hill to Astwood Road, terminating at the junction with Bilford Road, and these extended journeys were initially operated as Service W16.

From c. 1938 an additional extension was made to Service W5 to continue to Brickfields as Service W25, and at that time Service W16 renumbered to Service W15, giving the following group of services for Rainbow Hill…

• Service W5: Worcester City Centre – Rainbow Hill (Cemetery).
• Service W15: Worcester City Centre – Rainbow Hill – Astwood Road (Bilford Road Junction).
• Service W25: Worcester City Centre – Rainbow Hill – Brickfields (Glenthorne Avenue).

During the wartime period, this group of services were again expanded with the addition of new Service W14…

• Service W14: Worcester City Centre – Rainbow Hill – Blackpole (Archdales).

By 1967, both Service W5 and Service W14 had been withdrawn and the Rainbow Hill group of services had a new combined Service W15 and Service W25 timetable, inter-worked to provide a 10-minute frequency, Monday to Saturday, and a 15-minute frequency on Sundays.